CareerBuilder.com and USA TODAY recently released a Q3 Job Forecast. One of the top trends we saw is more workers are becoming passive job seekers as job security comes into question and better opportunities are explored – 19 percent of workers reported they are actively looking for a new job; among those not actively looking for a job, 83 percent said they would be open to a new one if they came across the right opportunity – a significant jump from 55 percent in 2006.

This is good news for you if you are on the hiring side, but could dramitically hurt your company if it is loosing top talent. According to Dr. John Sullivan, Head and Professor of Human Resource Management College of Business, San Francisco State University, re-recruiting is a must.

Per Dr. Sullivan, re-recruiting is simply applying the tools and strategies of external recruiting to your current employees. It means that instead of waiting and then having to compete against other offers, a manager proactively makes a compelling internal offer to its top talent on a periodic basis. His steps in the re-recruiting process include:

• Assume the best are getting recruiter calls and outside offers. Adopt the strategy that no one will stay at your firm longer than one year without being re-recruited. Drop loyalty from your vocabulary and assume you must continually excite top talent if you are to keep them.
• Identify which employees are in high demand. Ask your internal recruiters and external search professionals to help you identify hot jobs and individuals whom maybe at risk. Consider searching the Web to identify which of your own employees are currently looking.
• Ask your current employees to help you to keep the team together by identifying those they feel are risk of leaving.
• Identify the elements of typical offers for each key position by looking at the “other” offers that your new hires received. Ask executive search professionals to periodically update you on the offers that other similar professionals are getting in the outside market.
• Tell your current employees how important they are on a periodic basis. Ask them for the professional courtesy to notify you when they might consider an external offer.
• Ask your current top talent to describe their dream job and where they would like to be in the next year.
• Ask your current employees what frustrates them in their current job.
• Prepare a personalized offer for each of your top employees and deliver it to them on a periodic basis (between 3 and 12 months).
• Prepare an instant counteroffer strategy in case the above approach fails.

Tell us what you think. Does your company do anything to re-recruit talent within the organization to ensure you keep your best people? Have you found that this greatly impacts retention at your company?